open meetings Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

13 Aug, 2019

Montgomery County Commission bans citizens from livestreaming meetings

By Deborah Fisher|2019-08-14T08:54:31-05:00August 13, 2019|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: cameras, livestreaming, Montgomery County, open meetings, Tennessee Constitution|0 Comments

The Montgomery County Commission voted this week to prohibit live broadcasts, or livestreaming, from within the commission chambers during meetings despite advice that such a prohibition could be unconstitutional. The purpose of the amended rules, which also included other new restrictions, stated they were “to preserve the function, dignity and order of the proceedings.” But the county sheriff also told commissioners during the meeting that allowing live broadcasts created a security concern. The sheriff said he could not discuss details about the security problem caused by live broadcasts because that in itself would cause a security issue. County provides video on YouTube Montgomery County Commissioner Jason Knight argued that just [...]

Burchett introduces bill to require open meetings of TVA board

By Deborah Fisher|2019-06-08T07:33:36-05:00January 31, 2019|Categories: US House of Representatives|Tags: open meetings, Tim Burchett, TVA, U.S House of Representatives|0 Comments

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville, has introduced legislation to require TVA board meetings to be open to the public. U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R- Knoxville, introduced legislation that would require that TVA's board meetings, and meetings of board subcommittees, be open to the public. The current law governing the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was created by Congress in 1933, requires it to have four meetings a year. But there is no provision requiring that all of its meetings be open to the public, nor that minutes of meetings be publicly available. Burchett's legislation would require the board and subcommittees of the board to hold their [...]

Let’s not throw citizens out for video streaming the Legislature

By Deborah Fisher|2019-01-30T10:57:36-06:00January 30, 2019|Categories: Legislature, Open Meetings|Tags: camera ban, legislature, open meetings, video streaming|1 Comment

Some House committee and subcommittee chairs announced Tuesday that they are not permitting video streaming in their committee meetings or they won't allow it without prior permission from the chair, according to a report today in The Tennessean. Some said the policy will only apply to lawmakers; others did not make that distinction and their statements appeared to suggest it could apply to anyone in the audience. Cade Cothren, chief of staff for House Speaker Glen Casada, clarified that members of the news media would not be banned from taking video of meetings and told me that only if someone was causing a disruption would they be removed. And, as [...]